Allelica and Invitae aim to decrease the gap in polygenic
risk score (PRS) performance in individuals from diverse genetic
ancestries, ensuring that the life-saving integration of genomic
information into breast cancer risk assessments can benefit all
women
NEW
YORK, May 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Allelica has
formalized a partnership with Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), a
leading medical genetics company, to build a clinical artificial
intelligence architecture for breast cancer polygenic risk score
(PRS) development and clinical implementation in multiple
ancestries.
The partnership will accelerate clinical applications of PRS for
individuals of diverse ancestries by combining Invitae's wealth of
high-quality genomics data with Allelica's cutting-edge genomics
analytics and predictive software tools. This will enable new PRS
development and deployment in clinical settings.
"Our partnership with Invitae is an incredible opportunity for
us to join forces and leverage our complementary expertise to
address one of the most pressing challenges in genomic medicine:
closing the diversity gap in healthcare," said Allelica's CSO, Dr.
George Busby. "We're eager to work
together to provide tools that will ultimately reduce the impact of
breast cancer for women of all ancestries."
Allelica's collaboration with Invitae involves the development
and validation of a new PRS for breast cancer and its integration
with absolute risk models to estimate 10-year and lifetime risk in
women of multiple ancestries. PRS for breast cancer can inform when
women should begin breast cancer screening and which screening
modality they should use in order to detect the disease as early as
possible. Polygenic factors and pathogenic variants in moderate-
and high-risk genes account for similar proportions of the familial
relative risk of breast cancer.
"Fewer than 10% of women referred for hereditary cancer testing
are found to have pathogenic variants in known breast cancer
susceptibility genes," said Robert
Nussbaum, M.D., chief medical officer, Invitae. "This new
PRS can address an unmet need for women who are at increased risk
due to family history but do not have a positive result on a
gene panel. The PRS provides an opportunity to identify individuals
with greater-than-average risk who might otherwise be missed."
The companies will combine Allelica's innovative approach for
leveraging multiple datasets to improve the prediction of PRS
across different genetic ancestries with Invitae's clinical reach,
physician network, and development capabilities of innovative
genomics products. With this collaboration, Allelica and Invitae
aim to decrease the gap in PRS performance in individuals from
diverse genetic ancestries, ensuring that the lifesaving
integration of genomic information into breast cancer risk
assessments can benefit all women.
What is a Polygenic Risk Score (PRS)?
A PRS is a
measurement of a person's risk of disease that results from the
combined effect of many DNA variants across the genome. It is
calculated by combining the effect of these variants, each
contributing a small increase or decrease in risk into an overall
risk score. This information can be used to stratify individuals
based on their risk of disease. By combining PRS with conventional
risk factors, Allelica aims to make precision medicine available at
scale.
About Invitae
Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA) is a
leading medical genetics company whose mission is to bring
comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to
improve healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to
aggregate the world's genetic tests into a single service with
higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices. For more
information, visit invitae.com.
About Allelica
Allelica is a leading genomic software
company that specializes in secure and scalable solutions to
implement clinical-grade polygenic risk scores (PRSs). Allelica's
technology combines world-class datasets with the most advanced
algorithms to build PRSs with the highest predictive power for
estimating disease risk. Allelica's tools translate the enormous
potential of genomic data into practical tools that can be used to
identify individuals with a high genetic susceptibility for
life-threatening diseases. Through the incorporation of genetics
into disease risk assessments, Allelica is helping to build the
foundations of preventive medicine by helping to identify those for
whom early intervention and behavior modification could help reduce
lifetime risk. To learn more, visit allelica.com.
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SOURCE Allelica, Inc.